Thoughts on New Mexico’s return to school

When it comes to COVID 19 in New Mexico, news happens fast. On Monday morning the Lujan Grisham Administration announced that teachers would head to the front of the line for vaccines. Later that same day before media outlets even filed their stories, the Administration announced that all schools and all grades would be reopening to full-time in-person learning starting on April 5.

For starters, we at the Rio Grande Foundation are pleased that the schools will be reopening. Of course, it could have been done earlier and many schools (public and private) across the country have been open since August. And, if teachers were going to receive vaccine priority, that could have been done back in January when the vaccine was first being distributed.

Albuquerque Public Schools was already lagging in getting back to in-person learning. It will be interesting to see if they can/will get this done. More important than getting kids into their classrooms this spring is the clear sign that students across the State will be back in class this fall unless the Virus situation worsens dramatically.

While we applaud the reopening, the Gov.’s reopening has been chaotic and ever-changing. There is no doubt this has been a challenging time for districts AND parents/families.